


boy next door

by starksnack



Series: the workshop [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Teachers, Crack, Fluff, Getting Together, Idiots in Love, M/M, Misunderstandings, POV Tony Stark, Precious Peter Parker, Romantic Gestures, Teacher Steve Rogers, Teacher Tony Stark, Tony Stark Bingo 2020, Tony is an amazing teacher
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:49:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23743336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starksnack/pseuds/starksnack
Summary: The room next door to Tony's classroom has been empty for the last fourteen years. And suddenly the day before the first day of school Tony has a new neighbour.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: the workshop [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1610872
Comments: 26
Kudos: 278
Collections: Tony Stark Bingo 2020





	boy next door

**Author's Note:**

> i know this has already been done before. i kind of just reused a whole bunch of teacher au tropes and stuck them all into this one fic. moar cake for everyone I guess.
> 
> special thanks to [stella](https://adoctoraday24.tumblr.com//) for cheering me on and avengers&co for the beta read. any remaining mistakes are my own.

Tony had been working at Shield High for fifteen years. He was head of the Science Department and his engineering class was so popular they asked him to teach an additional class after school because there weren’t enough seats in the room for all the students who requested it.

Fifteen years of blissful peace. Of fun experiments with his students, tucked away in the back of the building. A safe haven away from annoying colleagues and Principle Fury’s stare. It was just him and his science and bright-eyed kids who wanted to learn everything they could from him.

He had a good system going. He would get into work fifteen minutes before the bell, despite Principal Fury’s yelling about punctuality, set up the experiment for the day (kids needed to learn by doing, not listening to boring lectures), teach three classes in the morning, take a quick lunch break, teach his three afternoon classes, his after school class, and then he went home. It was perfect. He spent every day doing what he loved, shaping the young, impressionable minds of the future, and then he could go home and play with his robot, Dum-E, and eat macaroni on the couch in his boxers, and wank until he passed out.

And then everything changed.

The classroom beside Tony’s had been empty for the last fourteen years. The professor that had been there before, Maya Hansen, taught biology to brace-faced freshman the first year Tony had started teaching. She was nice enough when they had met, she loved gardening and wouldn’t shut up about it. Unfortunately, she stopped being nice when Tony ‘borrowed’ one too many of her plants for experiments and returned them in a less than alive condition. What could he say? He didn’t exactly have a green thumb.

So when the classroom had remained unfilled the next year, Tony had decided to make use of the space and use it to store all of his project materials. He was a firm believer in not making his ~~kids~~ students buy anything for class; he was an equal opportunity teacher. But he was also a firm believer in spontaneity, hence he never knew what he needed and therefore always had all his materials ready for the day he decided to break them out.

It worked out perfectly until the day before the first day of school when a knock on his classroom door startled him out of a blissful nap.

Groaning, Tony rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand, squinting at the door. “How can I help you?”

The blond standing at his door was attractive. Six feet of bulging muscles and smooth milky skin. Tony wanted so desperately to be wrapped up in those arms. He could only imagine how those hands would feel on his hips as the blond-

Tony couldn’t go there. He wouldn’t let himself.

The tall blond was leaning against the doorjamb. He had a kind of boy next door vibe with how he filled out his flannel and jeans and boy was that denim doing something amazing for his ass. Clearly blondie noticed Tony checking him out because he was blushing and something in Tony wanted to see how far down the colour travelled. He quickly tried to corral his thoughts lest his blood get any ideas of going somewhere it didn’t have any right to be at that moment.

“Hi,” the blond waved at him awkwardly before scratching the back of his neck with a sheepish smile. “My name is Steve, uhh Rogers.” He shook his head, blush growing darker as he frowned at himself, “Steve Rogers, and I’m your new next-door neighbour.”

“Congratulations?” Tony raised a brow wondering why that information warranted waking him up from a perfectly good nap.

“Thanks.” If it were possible, Steve blushed even redder. “Anyway, I’m moving in” he shot a thumb over his shoulder, “and I was wondering if you could move your stuff.”

“My stuff?” Tony asked.

Steve nodded earnestly, “the boxes that say ‘Tony Stark, do not touch’ on them in all capitals? I figured you would want to move them yourself instead of having my colourful hands all over them.”

Tony may have been a genius, but he was having all kinds of trouble following this conversation. How was he supposed to when big, blond, and beautiful was using the power of his blue eyes against him. His nap must have transported him to an alternate dimension where nothing made sense and the people were unusually attractive. “Colourful hands?”

“Oh sorry,” Steve laughed. The sound was deep and melodious and a part of Tony thought it was absolutely adorable the way he looked when he grinned. He held up his hands, both of them with flecks of multicoloured paint on them. “I’m the school’s new art teacher.”

They were giving him an art teacher as a neighbour? If a botanist couldn’t survive Tony’s science experiments, how did they expect an art teacher to put up with him? It wasn’t his problem though. Tony frowned as he stood up, stretching. His joints popped pleasantly as he let loose another loud yawn.

Honestly, Tony so rarely left his small corner of the school that he couldn’t remember where the closest storeroom was. It was probably underneath the nearest staircase which was a three-minute walk from the classroom. There were at least ten heavy boxes full of course materials in the classroom next door. He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to cart all of it to the storeroom without breaking a sweat.

Tony absolutely despised exercise. Blondie looked like he spent all day doing it. And yet Tony had to move the boxes. The math did not add up.

“Are you sure you can’t just move them to the side?” Tony asked, already heading to the door to see what kind of moving he was going to have to do to get everything together.

“Well,” Steve scratched the back of his neck, “I can’t ensure that they will stay clean and I kind of need the extra space for the new easels we’re supposed to be getting in at the end of the week.”

Looking at the mess of the storeroom, or well, now classroom next door, Tony realized that it would be a lot more work to move all of the boxes than he had originally planned. A lot of them were half opened and picked through; Tony had a habit of searching for things and then immediately leaving after he had found what he was looking for instead of cleaning up.

“I saw some empty shelves in your room, maybe I can help you move your stuff into your own classroom, and then everything else can go in the storeroom?”

It was a nice enough offer coming from a more than nice-looking man which is probably why Tony found himself nodding along. Stepping forward, he started picking through the boxes.

And so, hours later, Tony found himself on the floor of his classroom across from Steve, laughing at old science projects that he had dug up from one of his classroom cabinets. They were definitely destined for the trash, a lot of them out of date and with wildly inaccurate information. Tony couldn’t believe he had graded a paper about the science of farts and how mood could affect how they smelled. Another project was about fellatio and how different fruits affected pleasure.

Somehow, together, he and Steve had managed to fit all of his supplies into his classroom. The beakers were neatly put away under the lab tables and the new notebooks were piled onto the shelves ready for use. His cabinets were filled with posterboard and colours and calculators were stacked onto a wall rack.

Conversation flowed easily between them, Steve talking about his passion for art and asking Tony about his many doctorates at MIT. Steve was as interesting as he was beautiful talking about animal shelters he volunteered at on the weekends and the cooking he was learning to do. Tony was already smitten, especially since he somehow managed to boil water.

The instant friendship kind of reminded Tony of kindergarten where a shared favourite subject could lead to best friends for life. Steve was undeniably kind and patient, especially when Tony grumbled about cleaning and moving boxes. Not to mention, he seemed to have a real passion for art that was hard to find in tired teachers nowadays. Honestly, he kind of reminded Tony of when he first started teaching at Shield high.

By the time Tony was locking up his classroom, it was seven in the evening and he had a wide smile on his face. He felt like he knew Steve’s whole life story at this point from his childhood in Brooklyn to his favourite ice cream flavour - mint chocolate chip of course- to his love for his mom’s baking. He was sure Steve felt the same way what with everything Tony spilled about his own life growing up in the spotlight and desperately trying to get away from it.

It felt like a weight being lifted off his shoulders. Tony was excited to have a classroom neighbour that he could talk to, he felt almost like he could tell Steve anything. It was a liberating feeling and Tony revelled in the beauty of it. It was probably pathetic. Tony had only once ever experienced friendship like this and it was with his college roommate who was deployed overseas. Gosh, he couldn’t wait to tell Rhodey about Steve.

Excitedly, Tony headed over to Steve who was turning the key in his own lock with a smile. He pocketed the key, looking up at Tony with beautiful sparkling eyes. Tony couldn’t deny that he wanted to bed this man, but he also wanted to get to know him, to be his friend and maybe date him if things went that way. Tony didn’t want the fun of the day to end, maybe they could keep hanging out.

“Would you fancy going to the bar for drinks tonight? Or coffee at my place?”

Steve blushed bright red, biting his lip as he looked up at Tony from under his lashes. “I don’t really think that’s all that professional. Especially when we both have school tomorrow.” Steve shot him a wide grin as if pearly white teeth would make the embarrassment Tony was feeling any less awful. “Sorry Tony, see you in the morning.”

And with that, Steve turned on his heel and headed down the hallway, the pad of his footsteps disappearing around the corner. Humiliation weighed down Tony’s feet and he couldn’t move from where he stood, glued to the ground and absolutely shocked.

It was a perfectly innocent invitation. Tony only wanted to be friends (for now). He had more propriety than trying to bed one of his colleagues immediately after meeting them. He wasn’t Professor Barton, for god’s sake.

Taking a deep breath, Tony found it in himself to leave, praying Steve wasn’t still in the parking lot. The last thing Tony needed was to see the other man again and compound his embarrassment. Thankfully the parking lot was all clear and Tony crawled into his Audi and rested his head against the steering wheel.

He always ruined things by opening his big mouth. Steve and him were forging the beginning of what Tony thought would be a mutually beneficial friendship. He thought Steve would maybe want to teach joint classes or spend their lunch breaks together. As much as Tony loved the nerds that occupied his classroom during lunch, he could use some adult company too sometimes.

It’s too bad he fucked things up, Steve would have made a nice friend. 

When Tony got out of his car the next morning, Steve was just coming out of the building, heading toward his car for a forgotten item probably. When he saw Tony, his face lit up, blue eyes warm as he changed course to head toward him. Of course, instead of being professional, Tony did an impressive about-face and headed in the exact opposite direction at almost a run, his heart pounding in his chest.

For the first day of school, he didn’t make the best impression, five minutes late and crawling through the window instead of coming through the door like a normal person. Thank god his class is too shocked to take any photos of him rolling off the shelves ass over teakettle and onto his face on the linoleum tile.

Standing up, Tony brushed himself off, grinning at his students as though nothing had happened. If they were going to be in his class, they would have to acclimate to weirder. “Good morning and welcome to Engineering, if you don’t like science, you better be ready to love it by the end of the semester.”

“Did you just come in through the window?”

The kid asking was Peter, he had been on the robotics team Tony advised the year before. He was probably the most intelligent kid Tony had ever met and one of the few sophomores eligible for his class of mostly seniors. He was also the most nosy and Tony kind of wanted to adopt him.

“Nope, I walked in through the door,” Tony replied with an easy-going smile. Maybe if he said it enough times, he would believe he was an actual adult. Tony rounded the lab tables to get to his desk at the front, booting up the projector. He hoped his kids liked memes cause that was all the powerpoint was.

Just as he was about to start passing out syllabi, there was a soft knock on his door. Tony frowned as he spotted blond hair through the door’s window. Then again, no one really came to Tony’s corner of the school so it could only be Steve.

The window was still open. Tony could put Peter in charge and just make a break for it. Sure, Steve had already seen him, but he could always fake his own death, move to Canada, and become an alpaca farmer.

Sighing, Tony ran a hand down his face. No. He was an actual adult and he couldn’t just leave his students here. Not when he had so much science love to share with them. He steeled himself. He had to do it for the kids.

Tony couldn’t just ignore him, not when the rest of the class was watching him stare at Steve through the door like some kind of stupid idiot. Getting rid of his gaping fish expression, Tony gave himself a mental pep talk. He had survived rap battles with his students, projects (yes multiple) about oviposition, and a royal cussing out by Principal Fury for showing up to school in a Speedo. Tony could do this. Taking a deep breath, he pasted a smile on his face, grabbed the handle, and pulled the door open.

“Class, this is Professor Rogers, he’s taken over the storeroom next door.” Tony tried to keep the cold bite out of his tone but from the snickers around the room, he figured he didn’t do the most amazing job.

If Steve didn’t want to be his friend, then Tony didn’t want to be his friend either. That was just how the cookie crumbled.

There were a lot of rumours circulating the school about why the classroom next door was empty. Most people thought that Tony was so loud and difficult to work with that they couldn’t handle teaching beside him. Another rumour that he heard was that he had shaved the last teacher’s head to use their hair for a science experiment.

“Hey guys,” Steve waved awkwardly at the class, his grin nervous. He was dressed in a button-up and slacks, a complete opposite of Tony’s band t-shirt under a lab coat. His hair was neatly combed and he had a canvas tucked under his arm. “Sorry to interrupt,” he turned to Tony with a soft smile, “somehow I missed you coming in,” someone in the back of the classroom burst out laughing and Steve’s brows furrowed in confusion, “uh, I just had a first day of school gift for you.” He gestured to the canvas under his arm. “It’s also kind of an apology for yesterday.”

“You can just leave it over there against the wall,” Tony pointed to the recycling bin by the door before turning to the rest of the classroom. “Alright kids, my name is Tony, if you call me Professor Stark, I am sending you to the principal’s office.”

Grabbing the stack of syllabi on his desk, Tony started passing them out. From the corner of his eye, he could see Steve still standing in the doorway with the canvas tucked under his arm. The lost look on his face almost made Tony feel sorry for him but then he thought about the humiliation of yesterday and decided he would be childish. It’s not like Steve would last as his next door neighbour anyway. By the time he finished passing all of the papers out, the blond was gone, taking his canvas with him.

And that was that.

Tony felt a little guilty about being so mean. Steve had every right to not want to hang out without Tony getting all pissy about it, but to call being friends unprofessional? That was just confusing. There was nothing wrong or unprofessional about going out for drinks after class. It was how most teachers unwound after a long day of dealing with teenaged brats.

Professors Barton and Natasha had a longstanding after school hangout on Fridays were they went for drinks to kick off the weekend. Tony was always getting invited to parties at Professor Odinson’s house where most of the teachers got wasted together and coordinated a day for their major tests to maximise student stress. (They never went through with it though because they were always too drunk to remember the planned date the next morning.)

Hours later when he finally caught a break for lunch, Tony had totally forgotten about his interaction with Steve. He was so excited about his students this year, everyone seemed genuinely interested in the topics he would be covering in class and it made him so happy to have the opportunity to teach them and foster their love for science.

It was exhausting being so happy though and Tony slumped against his desk with a yawn. Maybe he could take the forty-five minutes to catch a few Z’s and then be ready for the next bout of kids. He could always eat lunch during his fourth period.

Tony was just floating off into blissful sleep when there was a sharp knock on the door followed by the door swinging open. Squeezing his eyes shut, Tony willed whoever it was to go away and leave him in peace.

“Tony?”

Ugh, of course it was Steve.

“Tony can we please talk, I know you’re awake.”

Groaning, Tony sat up, rubbing his eyes with a yawn. “You better have a very good reason to be interrupting my lunch break.”

Steve was holding the canvas from earlier, his knuckles white on the wood as he held it out to Tony. “I painted this for you last night. I’m sorry for assuming things yesterday night but you said drinks...”

“You thought I was asking you out?” Tony asked incredulously. Everything kind of made sense now and Tony immediately felt like a total dick. “We had just met, I was asking if we could hang out because obviously we’re neighbours now and I wanted to have a good relationship with you.”

Scrubbing a hand down his face, Steve sighed. “I’m sorry, I know that now, I shouldn’t have assumed.”

Tony rolled his eyes, unable to stay angry at Steve and his kicked puppy expression. “Whatever, is that all you came here to say?”

“Well, I was hoping we could start over, and I brought you this.” Steve gestured to the canvas with his head and finally Tony took it from him, turning it over in his hands.

The picture was done in striking acrylics, Tony’s brown hair a warm mixture of browns, a stark contrast to the golden in Steve’s. The painting was of the two of them, both sitting cross-legged on the floor of one of their classrooms. Tony was in a tank top covered in grease as he put together what looked like a metal robot. Steve was paint flecked, the sleeves of his button-down rolled up as he drew a brush across the metal tony was building, painting it with flowers and leaves.

The painting must have taken hours, evidenced by the bags under Steve’s eyes that he was only noticing now that the other man was up close. Tony wanted to hug him and never let go. If this was what friendship felt like, Tony wanted to have as many friends as possible. Maybe he should start socializing with the other teachers and going to their lame events. 

“Wow,” Tony’s eyes scanned over the painting in awe. Steve was an incredibly talented artist and Tony was honestly kind of shocked to be receiving such a beautiful gift from the man he didn’t even think wanted to be his friend. “Thank you, Steve.”

“Of course, do you want help hanging it up?”

Tony nodded, his hand brushing over the careful brushstrokes. It would probably take a moment for him to let go of the painting long enough for Steve to help him hang it up, but Tony was excited to have it in his classroom.

Things went uphill from there. They spent their lunches together, Tony telling Steve about the tips and tricks he had learned over the years to keep his students in line. The drew up lesson plans for a joint teaching session later in the semester and Tony was really excited to see the dynamic of how they taught together. Steve would be a lot of fun in the classroom.

Now that Tony wasn’t angry with him and Steve didn’t think Tony wanted to date (even though he kind of did), there was an ease between them that Tony didn’t know was possible. Steve seemed to always know what he was thinking before he even said it and challenged him to think up more exciting projects for his students.

Even though they had only met less than a week ago, Tony felt like he had known Steve for far longer. They just clicked like missing links. It was weird, but Tony was grateful that of all the teachers that could have moved in next door, it was someone as cool as Steve.

Friday felt like it had taken forever to come but finally Tony was locking up his classroom door for the week, a whole bunch of entry surveys tucked under his arm so he could tailor his teaching style to his students. It had been such a fun week and Tony couldn’t wait for many more experiments and labs and discussions with his students. They had the whole year for a lot of fun and Tony was excited to see them grow as people in their love for science.

He was just about to head out when Steve’s blond head popped out of his classroom. “Hey Tony!”

“Hey,” Tony leaned against the doorjamb of Steve’s room, watching the other man flit around, putting away easels and cleaning up paint. “Do you need any help?”

“No, thank you,” Steve said quickly, pulling his filthy smock off and hanging it up. Tony was very surprised that his dress shirt was clean giving how dirty the plastic apron was. “I’m just about to head out. Did you want to go to that bar you were talking about earlier this week?”

Tony frowned, his lip caught between his teeth. He so desperately wanted to say yes, to hang out with Steve outside of work, but he didn’t want the other man to feel forced into it. Besides, the last thing Tony needed right now was fucking up the one friendship he had with a colleague. They fit together so perfectly and Tony was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“I’m kind of busy tonight,” Tony lied scratching the back of his ear with a frown. “Maybe another time?”

Steve nodded with a quiet hum, locking up his classroom and swinging his canvas bag over his shoulder. There was a slight frown marring his features and Tony felt kind of awful for putting it there. “That’s too bad, definitely another time.”

“Sure thing,” Tony responded, praying that another time would never come. He didn’t think he could keep seeing Steve’s pleading blue eyes and say no. He would break down eventually.

Too bad Steve kept asking. One week it was an offer to go out to lunch together so Steve could explore the new city, another week it was mentioning a museum he had heard opened a new exhibit and asking Tony if he wanted to go check it out.

He did want to check it out. Tony wanted to hang out with Steve outside of school so badly. But he was already pretty sure he had a crush on the man and he didn’t want to muck up one of the best friendships he’d made because he wanted to get his dick wet. He was more professional than that. Besides, that very first day Steve made it very clear how he felt about Tony.

One day four weeks after the start of school, Tony had half the robotics team sitting in his classroom for lunch, laughing as they tried to brainstorm a winning project for competition season. They had an impressive idea about kinetic energy they all wanted to explore and Tony was trying to guide them into a concrete idea.

A knock on his door pulled Tony’s attention away from a conversation with Peter about magnetic levitation and he turned to look out the door. Even before he saw the blond hair he knew it was Steve because he was the only person who ever knocked instead of just bursting into the classroom.

“Come in,” Tony called before turning back to Peter to explain magnetic levitation for hoverboards. They had magnets and cardboard in the cabinet that they could probably make work for a prototype before Tony went out and bought industrial strength magnets and wood.

“Hey Tony,” Steve eyed the chair on Tony’s right, “do you mind if I take a seat?”

“Free country,” Tony replied, taking a bite out of his lunch. He had door dashed a burger and the food was like heaven in his mouth. He offered a bite to Steve but the man just shook his head. Tony figured he had to eat really healthy to look like that. 

“So,” Steve looked up at Tony from under his eyelashes, he shot a glance around the table before taking a deep breath and looking at Tony. “There is a new musical in town and I’ve never been to the theatre so I was wondering if you wanted to come with me.”

“Sorry, I’m busy,” Tony said shortly, trying his best not to look Steve in the eyes. He knew he would cave the moment that happened.

“You’re busy?” Peter asked, his brows furrowed as he looked between him and Steve.

“Yeah, I have to feed my cat and clean my house and I owe Dum-E a couple games of fetch,” Tony answered hoping the fast response would throw off how big of a lie that was. His bots made sure his house was always clean and as much as he wanted a cat, he hadn’t found the time to go to the shelter and pick one up. At least the part of fetch with Dum-E was true.

MJ snorted from where she was sitting at the other side of the table. Tony had thought she wasn’t listening what with her head being buried in a book but clearly she was. That was a problem because she always called Tony out on his bullshit. “Last I asked, you said you don’t have any pets, and if you did, your black band shirt would have been covered in cat hair.”

“Can’t you put off cleaning your house and playing with your robot to go to the theatre with Professor Rogers?” Ned asked innocently, eyes wide. He blinked at Tony tipping his head to the side like a confused puppy.

Betrayal! Tony’s mind screamed. They were all conspiring against him. Every single one of them. How could they just rat him out like that? These meddling kids.

“Sorry,” Tony shrugged, ducking his head so he wouldn’t have to look Steve in the eyes. He knew he would cave immediately if he did. “I just can’t.”

After that Steve didn’t ask again. Tony figured that was the end of it. They still ate lunch together and Steve waved at Tony as they were both heading into the building. They traded horror stories as they walked out and shared a laugh every now and then. It was a perfectly professional relationship that didn’t extend outside of school. Perfectly comfortable and safe.

Finally Tony didn’t worry about fucking things up between them with his horniness.

But then the sticky notes started and it was like reigniting his huge crush on Steve.

The first one was stuck to his board two weeks after he had rejected Steve’s offer to go to the opera. It was a bright pink so he couldn’t really miss it. Steve’s handwriting was neat, the blue sharpie stark on the paper.

 _Avo-GOOD-day!_ Was written on the paper with a smiling avocado beside it. Tony resisted the urge to swoon as his fingers rubbed the paper between his fingers.

A couple of students watched in fascination as Tony pulled the note off the board reading it over and over. There was some tittering among the class. Peter was in this one and Tony already knew the boy was texting MJ about this so they could meddle. He carefully stuck the note to his computer and started class.

He thought it would be a one time thing. He was wrong.

The next morning, a piping hot coffee sat steaming on Tony’s desk as he rushed in right before the bell. He dropped his things off in his cabinet before picking up the cup, a blue sticky note stuck to the lid.

 _What do you call a sad cup of coffee? Depresso._ Underneath was a cute drawing of a cup of coffee with a sad face on it. Tony laughed before realizing his entire class was watching him with matching confused expressions.

Trying to compose himself, Tony started class. Through the day though, he kept finding himself thinking about the sticky note and would let out a chuckle. His students kept shooting him concerned glances. They probably thought he was crazy but what else was new.

It continued for weeks after that. Every day Tony looked forward to a new sticky note, stuck to his desk, his board, his computer, his windows, his door. It was like a scavenger hunt and Tony’s top desk drawer was quickly filling with the colourful paper.

When they hung out at lunch, Steve didn’t mention it but every morning without fail Tony had a new pun to laugh at and a cute drawing to go with it. It warmed his heart a little and he found himself crushing on Steve even more. 

Three weeks later at lunch, Steve didn’t knock before entering, plopping himself down at Tony’s desk and opening his lunch of a grilled cheese sandwich and fruit. Tony found that he didn’t mind all that much even though the robotics kids who were sitting in the back were looking at the two of them curiously. Steve waved at them before turning to Tony.

“Do kids only take your class because you’re attractive?”

Tony who was drinking water nearly spat it out all over his desk. He chocked on it, his eyes bugging out of his head as he pounded on his chest. Steve set his sandwich down to pat Tony on his back, concern and apology swimming in his eyes.

One of the students in the back coughed, someone else snickered. Tony had half a mind to kick them out but he loved his ~~kids~~ nerds too much to do that.

“What?” Tony wheezed out when he finally got his breath back.

The hint of a smirk played at the corner of Steve’s mouth as he picked at a spot of drying paint on his slicks. “It was just something I overheard one of my students saying. Apparently people are thinking of signing up for my class next year because they want to ‘tap this’?”

This time Tony did spit out his water. Thankfully there was nothing on his desk and Steve produced a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe up the mess. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, Tony sighed. “I can’t believe those words just came out of your mouth.”

The robotics kids were whispering about them. Tony just knew it.

“Sorry haha, I was just wondering if that was normal.” Steve rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly before straightening.

Tony sighed, “yeah it’s normal, hell I’ve heard some of them talking about which teachers they would fuck.” With his chin, Tony nodded toward the robotics kids in the back watching as several of them turned red at his words. “It’s normal, so if you don’t like being ogled sometimes, maybe don’t be so attractive.”

The moment the words were out of his mouth Tony wanted to shove his foot in. That was so unprofessional, he couldn’t believe he’d just said that to one of his coworkers. Standing up, Tony fumbled out some excuse about going to the bathroom, turned around, and speed-walked out fast enough that it could almost be considered a run.

From behind him, Tony could hear heavy footsteps. He hoped it wasn’t Steve but the smell of acrylic tickling his nostrils confirmed his worst nightmare. Confrontation. Tony wanted to crawl under a rock and never come back. There was always faking his death and moving to Canada.

A warm hand around his wrist stopped him in his tracks and suddenly he was being spun around. He only had a moment to take in bright blue eyes before Steve’s lips were on his, soft and tasting of strawberries as his huge hands cupped Tony’s face, brushing over his beard.

There was whooping from the robotics kids as they pulled away and Steve blushed even harder as he ran his thumbs over Tony’s cheeks.

“I think you’re pretty attractive too,” Steve admitted blushing hard as he met Tony’s eyes. “That’s why I’ve been trying to ask you out these last couple of weeks.”

“Those were dates?” Tony asked incredulously, his eyes wide as he settled his hands on Steve’s waist. “I thought you wanted to hand out and be just friends and I was going to fuck things up with my horniness.”

“Those were definitely dates,” Steve replied biting his lip.

Tony’s brows furrowed. “But that first day, you said you didn’t want to go out for drinks. That wasn’t a date or anything, but why did you say no?”

“You’re really handsome, Tony.” Steve rubbed the back of his neck. “I panicked.”

Tony laughed, pulling Steve down for another kiss. 

“So,” Steve took a deep breath as if steeling himself. It was adorable and no one had done this for Tony in years. “Does this mean you’ll have dinner with me tonight?”

“I don’t know,” Tony teased, looking up at Steve from under his lashes. A grin teased at his lips as he tried to keep a straight face and look mock shocked. “Isn’t that inappropriate.”

Steve grinned at him bending down to slot their lips together, “I sure hope so.”

**Author's Note:**

> Come chat with me on [tumblr](https://starksnack.tumblr.com/) and [twitter](https://www.twitter.com/starksnack/).


End file.
